Welcome to St. Andre

I made it into St. Andre around 9pm last night... the drive too forever as I kept getting stuck behind trucks and caravans on sketchy mountain roads.  Jeff and Steve had cold beers and cheese waiting on me.


Soon after I arrived I got to meet Elena, half of the dynamic duo of Mark and Elana and our hosts for the week.  We are renting a gorgeous apartment at the end of their farmhouse.  Beautiful
accommodation and there is a LZ in the front garden.

Shortly after meeting Elana, Werner & Jackie arrived from Switzerland.  Jeff meet them last year and had a blast hanging out and flying with like minded people, so they coordinated their vacation with our trip.

After a good nights sleep, we headed up the hill for a morning sledder off the south launch.

Wide open launch and an easy flight to get things started.  The main LZ in town is at the confluemce of 3 valley and can be windy and turbulent,  and Mark's LZ in front of the house is just slightly better.  But no issues as we all had great flights.  Toward the end of the flights we all notice the bubbles of thermals, so once we landed we wasted no time in packing up and heading back up the hill.


Our second flight was more what we were looking for.  I launched and scratched around for a while to the east of launch, while Jeff, Werner & Steve went west.  Jackie, the sensable one, stayed on the ground as it was gusty and starting to look like it would overdevelop.


After boating around for a while, I got a really nice, extended climb that took be above launch so I decided to top land and get the car.  No sense in having to ride back up the hill in the dark to retrieve it.  While I as packing up, Steve came in and top landed in style to check out the conditions.

There were over 20 gliders in the air and most were on big ears to avoid being pulled into clouds.  After figuring that it wasn't going to OD, Steve took off again and I finished packing and headed down.  A quick stop at the market for more beer, cheese and bread and I picked up Steve in the Main LZ.  We go back to the house just in time to watch Jeff and Werner land.

Great day flying!

Here's some video from the second flight of the day: